The Mediterranean

Luigina Rubini Messerli of the University of Lausanne, Lausanne, discussed “The Wise Fool between History and (Popular) Literature in Spain, Germany and Italy” in the 16th and 17th centuries: she examined the character of the court jester in the tension between disport and wisdom, with special attention to dwarf figures in the arts, including Velázquez’s painting Meninas (Mari-Barbola).

In his fascinating paper “The Wise Fool in the Greek Tradition” since Aesop’s times, Stelios Pelasgos (Katsaounis) of Mount Pelion, Greece, contended that “all wise fools, the legendary (Aesop), the historical (Socrates) and the fictional (Karagiozis) are notoriously ugly and deformed… The wise fool is either a genuine fool who acts foolishly and exposes the foolishness of those who consider themselves wise, or a wise man who pretends to be a fool in order to question the certainties of the wise, or an ambivalent, both a wise and a fool, shaking the perceptions of foolishness and wisdom in others with his antics.” Pelasgos ably showed that “the wise fool is also a spiritual example in the mystic traditions of the Greek and the Mediterranean world.”

Marilena Papachristophorou of the Academy of Athens, Hellenic Folklore Research Centre, Greece, presented an in-depth study on “The Chick-Pea Master as a Human Parallel for Trickster Fox in Greek Folk Tradition. Considerations on oikotype ATU 545D*”, examining adaptations of the plot in the Balkan countries’ traditions and to which degree the human Chick-Pea Master assimilates the qualities of the Fox Matchmaker which normally replaces Puss in Boots in the Greek oral tradition.

George Mifsud-Chircop of the University of Malta, presented a reappraisal of “A Wise Fool’s Anecdotal Cycle in Malta”, challenging the manipulation and bowdlerisation of the discoursive richness of Maltese folk culture to the extent of framing Gahan, the Maltese wise fool, as “light-headed”, at times defining his anecdotes, brimming with sagacity, slyness, guile, cheats and deceits, as “stupidities”. Yoel Shalom Perez, Ben Gurion University, Israel, discussed “Culture-hero Tricksters among Bedouin Tribes in the North of Israel”: he dealt with two culture-hero tricksters, Djoha (Jucha, Joha), who is known all over the Mediterranean and also in the Judeo-Espaniol culture, demonstrating a possible connection between this story and stories ascribed to the famous Arab poet Abu Nuwas, and a more local hero by the name of Hassan-el-Shater (Hassan, the clever one). Doris Vella from Malta discussed “The Trickster in Amerindian Tales”, remarking that “unlike the trickster character of the Mediterranean, the Coyote anti-hero is distinguished by the fact that he is not personified by a human; his world is the animal world – rather like Aesop’s”.

A whole session was dedicated to professional storytelling: Agnès Chavanon, artistic director of Paroles en Festival, Rhône-Alpes, France, commented upon “The Function of Folktales in Contemporary Society. Tales of wisdom and stupidity in the professional narration of the femme de la parole”. She explained why, in spite of her being a storyteller for 25 years, the stories of wise fools remain her favourite repertoire. Mike Wilson of the University of Glamorgan, Pontypridd, Wales, inquired into “The Wise Fools of Contemporary Professional Storytelling”, on the one hand looking at the responsibilities of the professional storyteller today and building on Walter Benjamin and Jack Zipes by assessing the storytellers’ potential for becoming the wise fool themselves, especially in the challenging context of widening professionalisation and commodification of storytelling; on the other hand, he considered a number of examples of practising storytellers who, through their work, attempt to adopt the mantle of the wise fool and, in doing so, revive the tradition of the storyteller as a subversive and emancipatory force. Marylyn Peringer from Toronto discussed her experience as a professional storyteller in her paper “The Storytellers School, Toronto. Gahan: Rogue, Fool, Wise Man, and Friend to Storytellers”.

A Plenary Session under the chairmanship of H.E. Dr Ugo Mifsud-Bonnici, ex-President of the Republic of Malta, closed the conference. Many participants took an active part in the discussion, including Prof. Ulrich Marzolph, and Drs Robin Gwyndaf, George Mifsud-Chircop, Marilena Papachristophorou, Stelios Pelasgos, Sigrid Schmidt, Ellinor Silius-Ahonen and Mike Wilson. It is hoped that the proceedings will be published in due course.

The Storytelling Festival

All levels of Maltese society were involved in the festival, with the main focus being the younger generations, including two sessions at the Corrective Facilities, Kordin Prisons and a session for B. Educ. University students. Storytelling involved telling improvised and dramatised narratives from the respective cultures in one’s own language (and in translation). Many international storytellers from Austria, Canada, France, Greece, Israel and Italy and a number of Maltese storytellers participated, including Etty Ben-Zaken, Oded Shoub, Eitan Steinberg and Yoel Perez (Israel), Agnès Chavanon and Joseph Cutayar (France), Anna Maria Civico (Italy), Claudia Edermayer (Austria), Robin Gwyndaf (Wales), Stelios Pelasgos and Domniki Mavridou (Greece), Marylyn Peringer (Toronto), and Josephine Demajo, Marlene Mifsud-Chircop, and Rita Pace from Malta.

Over 1,500 students from state and private schools in Malta and Gozo attended the various sessions. Moreover, three conferences for the general public were held on “The Storyteller’s Way of Mastering and Educating the Interpersonal and Intrapersonal Intelligence” by Dr Stelios Pelasgos from Greece purposely addressed to teachers and educationalists; “The Function of Folktales in Contemporary Society” by Agnès Chavanon, a French storyteller of international renown; and “The Function and Value of Storytelling” by Dr Robin Gwyndaf of Wales.

The members of the organising committee of both events, namely Saviour Seisun (chairperson), Anthony Cardona, Mario Cutajar, David Calleja, and Dr George Mifsud-Chircop, would like to thank the official sponsors of these cultural events: Middlesea Valletta Life Assurance Company Ltd, the Malta Council for Culture and the Arts, the Ministry of Education, St James Cavalier, Valletta, Farsons Foundation, Publishers Enterprises Group (PEG) Ltd, the University of Malta G. F. Abela Junior College Administration, Park Hotel (Sliema), Heritage Malta, the Malta Photographic Society, the Malta Tourism Authority and Air Malta.

Part I was carried last Saturday